Here’s an update from our Vegas blackjack insider, Charlie..

“The games of blackjack at the RIO were just OK.  They played a lot of 6 deck games with good rules and many one deck games with poor rules.  The one deck games paid 6 to 5 for a players blackjack and there was no doubling after splitting.  They did have two double deck games that were very good with a good cut (meaning good penetration always past 5/8ths of the double deck.  I won pretty easily in this game.  The only problem I had was getting a credit line.  I applied for credit early in the morning and didn’t get it approved until about 6 PM.  I think it was because my Merrill Lynch account stopped using Bank One and started using J.P. Morgan Chase…”

“I also played at the Bellagio and the game there is great with the same rules as the Rio in the double deck game.  A strange thing happened at the Bellagio when I asked for a marker for the same amount as a player to my left.  We left the game at approximately the same time.  He won and I lost.  In Vegas you usually pay off your marker at the table (different from AC where you pay the marker off at the cage).  The pit boss made a mistake and gave the player next to me my marker instead of his.  He immediately ripped it up and when the pit realized what they did, they tried to find me.  They didn’t know where I was staying so if I never returned I would have never had to pay off the marker.  I did go back, however, so they immediately told me about their mistake.  I naturally agreed to signing another marker and that made them very happy.  They told me that this happened before and they ran into players that were not so agreeable.  I asked them what they would have done if I didn’t come back to the table and they said they would just wait for me to come back some day and they were not going to call me at home. They were very embarrassed, but it turned out well.  By the way I won more than the value of the marker when I played the second time.”

…Until next time…

Blackjack Tournaments are becoming more and more popular at casinos recently. Not only are they fun new way to play blackjack, but since most people already know how to play, it is accessible to a lot more people than a poker tournament. Another advantage of a blackjack tournament is that it doesn’t take up a lot of time. Even in a very large tournament, the time commitment is only a fraction of that of a poker tournament. With this guide, we at BlackJackForWinners.com will teach you some simple strategies that will give you some significant advantages in blackjack tournaments and help you win some money!

Determine Which Tournaments to Enter

First you need to choose a tournament. The best tournaments to enter are the ones that are free. The free tournaments tend to be invitation only so the vast majority of tournaments available to you will have an entry fee. Try to avoid tournaments where the prize pool is less than the sum of all the entry fees. Most casinos will guarantee a minimum prize pool and will add to it as more people enter the tournament.

Make sure you understand the Structure

The typical round in a tournament consists of 25 hands, with a minimum and maximum bet. Each player places their bet in order, with the initial bettor switching each hand. Usually the last hand of the round has no limit, that’s when you want to make your move. You need to bet enough to ensure that if you win you will be in second place and move on to the next round.

Blackjack tournaments have many different structures and a smart player will understand how to gain an advantage (on top of the card counting advantage) for each one.

The Cut-Off

With open tournaments, there are usually more entrants than will fit neatly into a bracket (24, 48, 96, etc.). When this happens, the tournament will have a preliminary round to reduce the number of players to fit into the bracket format. The problem most people have with this initial round is they take too many risks. Remember, the guy with the most chips advances as does the guy who just makes the cut-off. You do not need to make big bets and risk your tournament life.

The most important thing to remember is that just as in real life, most people who play in tournaments are ignorant. Instead of wondering how much you need to advance, spend your down time watching other tables and write down how much everyone has at the end of their round. When I play in tournaments I bring a friend who can help me write down totals. At the end of the shoe, the tournament director will do an official count of each player so the results are very easy to record. If you are lucky enough to be in a later seating, you can determine with reasonable accuracy the amount you will need to move on. This will allow you to make smaller bets and keep your risk to a minimum.

If you are unlucky and are one of the first people to play in the preliminary round you will have to make slightly bigger bets but being conservative is the way to go. Most people will overestimate the amount they will need to advance and will make large bets. This means that more than the normal number of people will bust out. Also, people who bet big tend to continue to bet big so that even if they move out to an early lead they tend to give back the chips by the end of the shoe.

Top 2

Many tournaments will have multiple rounds in which the top 2 or 3 players at the table advance. When you are playing in this format, you need to watch the other players closely. For most part you want to play somewhat conservatively, unless more than one of your opponents takes off to a large lead. Remember, you aren’t trying to get the most chips, you are trying to get the second most. Many players will try to jump out to an early lead, let them take the risk of busting out. I have been in several tournaments where I have advanced in a round by only betting the minimum and watching the rest of the table bust out with a bad shoe.

Head-to-Head

Some tournaments will have you face off one-on-one, with half of the players advancing each round. If this is the case, then playing conservatively is still the better strategy. If your opponent starts to lose early you may advance on him busting. If he gets ahead you can always start being more aggressive after he has taken the risk already. You may lose but it is always better to let your opponent be at risk first.

If you get to bet last on the last hand then you have the advantage. You can bet just enough to beat him if you both win. Note that I usually do not take into consideration a Blackjack unless I have my opponent covered by a large margin. It is better to lose to the rare Blackjack (like I did in the MGM Grand March Madness $500,000 Invitational) than to bet to protect against it and lose simply by having him win the hand and you lose. Go with the percentages.

In later articles we will get into the math.